Nazarene Uprising of 1748
It was the fourteenth day of the tenth month of the year seventeen hundred forty-eight and Princess Emilia Antoinette, Chancellor Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide sit together with the heads of all branches of the Scuta Aemilia, in the chancellory in Stadt Taktwinkel. They are discussing the mutiny that took place over the last two days, after dark grey clouds over Aemilia sparked great fear, especially among a more extreme part of the Ludwiggian Reformed Church, which thought that the nation would be subjected to divine judgment. A preacher, Johannes Erdnuss, had called for rebellion against the state, which he saw as demonic because of its dabbling in South Cibolan Witchcraft and the demands placed on the church, especially with the Prinsessenvertaling being the only allowed translation of their Holy Scripture. On the night from the 13th to the 14th parts of the Exercitus Aemilia had revolted, they had taken their weapons and grouped in the Lanzerwald. Mutineers in the Panzerkorps Ludwigshafen even had taken Panzergefechtswagen II with them, to which the Equites Caeli responded by scrambling F-9 Ashavan II fighter jets and targetting these tanks, seven of which were found and destroyed, two of which were still missing.
Princess Emilia Antoinette rubbed her forehead, the situation had escalated so rapidly over the last few days and she was quite tired from the day before, when she was washed up on a sandbar and spoke to the Eternal Mistress, who nearly caused flooding when she wanted to see her descendant Herodias Blutwasser in person. She understood that the people were freaked out by the events, she was too, but she couldn't understand the demands of the extremists within the Ludwiggian Reformed Church, to go back to their old translation, the Stadtparlementübersetzung, which had so many problematic parts, which surely couldn't be the intention of a benevolent god, which the Nazarenes claimed they worshipped. And now there was an armed conflict, a civil war, and both the robberies of the mutineers on weapons depots, and the strikes of the Equites Caeli had resulted in the loss of life, it had become difficult to resolve this situation diplomatically, and while the federation still had military supremacy, she didn't want needless spilling of blood. She questioned the commander of the airforce about her reasoning for deploying deadly force, and the commander explained how everything they had done had been according to doctrine, how it had been proportional, and how it had been mostly effective. It was awful, but it was right. The commander of the Exercitus said that he had no reason to believe that more mutinies were underway, but that was an assumption, it felt bad to doubt his words, and he realised that she didn't fully believe everything he said, he didn't either. He hoped he would be right, he hoped that his faith in his soldiers and officers would not be betrayed once more. He too, had done what needed to be done, the Exercitus had started to build entrenchments around the cities that were deemed to be at the highest risk of attack, his dragoons had been out in the forest looking out for the mutineers, so that they could be found. And what then? Destroy them? Reason with them? It would depend on their actions, doctrine said that de-escalation should be sought, but that the military would strike hard against any force, external or internal, that would threaten the cities of the federation.
One company of the dragoons that had been deployed to the search mission was that of Rittmeisterin Angela Rettich, she guided her group through the thick forest north of Gödelitz, she knew most of the people under her command but she had been assigned a pale young woman, with a shining amulet on her neck. On her horse, she rode next to the young woman and asked her who she was and what her specialty was. "My name is Sigrid Friedrichssohn, I am a medic, Frau Rittmeisterin.", the young woman said. "Why did the major assign you to us then? We already have four medics, one for each of the patrols in my company." the young woman shook her head, "The general did not tell me why I had to join this company. I have had training but I have no practical experience in the military, this is my first formal assignment since I was initiated." "Initiated? Are you a chaplain, young lady?" Sigrid hesitated, unsure what to tell her superior, who grew annoyed and told her to explain herself fast, "I graduated in necromancy, Frau Rittmeisterin." she offered, and Angela Rettich was lost for words. The rittmeisterin was not a witch herself, she had been raised in a Nazarene household and while not religious herself, those norms and values, she still carried them with her. She had an open mind to most witchy things, she didn't understand the taking of auspices, but it was an important ritual in the military so she abided by those traditions. But necromancy? Even in the Confoederatio Aemilia that was a taboo subject, it sounded repulsive to bring back the dead. The young necromancer recognised the shock in the eyes of her superior and quickly added, "We usually don't animate corpses, we try to gain knowledge from the dead, from their spirits. Reanimating a corpse is very difficult and hardly ever leads to the result one hopes for." The rittmeisterin mumbled the word 'usually' under her breath and thanked the young lady, gave her horse the spurs and returned to the front of the company, to join her wachtmeisterinnen.
On the twenty-third day of the tenth month in the year seventeen hundred forty-eight, Johannes Erdnuss spoke to his soldiers. They were assembled in the near vicinity of Ciudad de Oro, in the Aemilian jurisdiction of El Dorado. The city was known because of its goldmines, that were mined by Horny demons. The federation gained a great deal of wealth from these mines and he reckoned, that if he would capture the mines, and murder the demons inside of them, he would have great leverage over Princess Emilia Antoinette in any negotiations, and if those failed, he would still have the funds to raise an even bigger army and maybe wage war on other cities as well. His scouts had explored the area and had only seen small entrenchments of Aemilian forces, which seemed to anticipate an attack on the cities near the coast, rather than on Ciudad de Oro. The entrenchments that existed, he wanted to overrun with experienced infantry and his two Panzergefechtswagen II. Johannes Erdnuss explained his plans to his officers, and the plan was set into motion. He had given patches belonging to the Republic of the United Cities in the Lanzerwald to his soldiers, to put on their uniforms, to signify the new state that they would found after they had conquered El Dorado.
It was successful at first. Only limited resistance was met, the Aemilian forces did not have heavy anti-tank weapons around Ciudad de Oro, with which they could effectively engage the Panzergefechtswagen II, they only possessed several old-fashioned Flachfeuergeschütz 40/1682 light anti-tank cannons, which did some damage, but not enough to stop the tanks, before the crew had to abandon their positions as the tanks fired on them. When they encountered the mines, the horny demons were at work there, and they did not stop recovering ore from the mines as the Nazarene troops entered the site. The soldiers were at first unsure what to do, as the demons did not pose a threat to them, and seemed generally friendly. Johannes Erdnuss was brought in and he feared a mutiny as his soldiers seemed unwilling to massacre the demons. So he set up a sham tribunal for the demons, they would be free to stay in the mines, if they would be willing to pledge their allegiance to Yeshua, and renounce their allegiance to Princess Emilia Antoinette, after which they would be baptised to signify their new birth, so to speak. He expected them to refuse, as they had been shackled into obedience by the princess, but to his absolute horror they accepted. Now, with the spell put on them by the witch-princess, they became their own malevolent selves again, and they set themselves upon the Nazarene rebels. It was a gruesome sight as the demons started attacking, dismembering and then devouring the soldiers and only Johannes Erdnuss and a few of his soldiers were able to escape.
Rittmeisterin Angela Rettich and her company had made their way through the forest all the way to El Dorado when they met with a group of undocumented natives, people that lived in the Lanzerwald but that were not registered as cities of the federation, as they lived too far away from civilisation. While hunting, these undocumented natives had seen a group of armed men that seemed out of place, they had not engaged with them, as they suspected they could be dangerous. The rittmeisterin thanked the natives for their information and the company made their way to the location, along the river banks, where the group of armed men were last sighted. They still sat there, in uniforms belonging to the Kriegskorps, but with the Aemilian patches replaced with those of the Lanzerwald Republic. The dragoons surrounded the men and ordered them to drop their weapons, hold their hands high and surrender. All soldiers did so, only Johannes Erdnuss tried to escape and he was shot in the back in his flight. Without saying a word, Sigrid, the young necromancer, walked to the corpse, and put a small blue gem in the mouth of the preacher. After a few seconds she removed it, put it in her pocket, and smiled. "I captured him.", she said. "He's dead.", Angela replied. "His soul is alive, and I captured it.", Sigrid countered again. "You can't just carry his soul, you need to drag his body back to our base too, I need my soldiers to make sure our captives won't run away." Sigrid took another blue gem out of her pocket, this one a little darker and she put that in the mouth of the dead preacher, she then uttered some words in Problematic and the corpse started to rise, his face still in a hideous grimace. With her commander, the dragoons and the captives looking at her in absolute horror she smirked, "Well, I'm not strong enough to physically carry him, so his body will have to walk itself, don't worry, the soul is still trapped in a gem that I have in my pocket, this soul belonged to my pet rat Snuffles. Come Snuffles, we're finally heading back to Taktwinkel I think."
